Escape From Terra - by Sandy Sandfort, Scott Bieser and Lee Oaks! - Big Head Press, publishing Thoughtful Stories since 2002

Panel 1
Full-height panel, Guy Caillard – a small, wiry man with a pencil moustache -- is walking towards us down an office corridor. He is dressed in 22nd-Century style office clothing, and the corridor (along with all the interiors of this segment) have a simple/functional but also vaguely futuristic style. Clipped to his breast pocket is a 2”x3” ID badge. When you can see it up close, it has his mug-shot as the largest object, his printed name, a small bar-code and two magnetic strips.

Guy is holding a cup of coffee, and he has a desultory expression on his face.

Caption: Guy Caillard, from the French region of Terra, pronounced his first name ‘Ghee’.

Caption 2: That the mostly Anglophones here at United World Revenue Service insisted on pronouncing it to rhyme with ‘eye’ was one of many irritations he endured at his job.

Panel 2
Dream-picture of a more heroic image of Guy, dressed something like a Wild-West Sheriff with a big star on his vest, standing over the corpses of the “robber barons,” gazing across a bomb-blasted corporate boardroom in a domineering pose.

Caption: All his life he had nurtured an heroic vision of himself, one recognized for his talent and courage.

Caption 2: When he went to work for the UWRS, he thought he would force the robber barons to pay their fare share in helping Terra’s less fortunate.

Panel 3
Medium elevated angle shot of Guy’s cubicle, with the real Guy sitting at his desk. The cubicle is about 7x7 and is crammed full of paper files, folders, and envelopes both large and small – stacked up in piles around the place. There are drawers and cabinets but they are also stuffed There’s barely room for a walkpath to Guy’s chair. It looks absolutely dreary. Guy is taking a sip of his coffee while seated with ramrod straight posture facing the terminal display on his desk. The display looks something like a futuristic flatscreen monitor and keyboard, without cords. The desktop is also cluttered with stacks of papers and envelopes.

Caption: It hadn’t quite worked out that way. The Robber Barons had been taxed into oblivion, except for a clever few who made all the right friends and were therefore untouchable.

Caption 2: So Guy spent his days squeezing the dwindling middle class to fund UW’s many worthy projects. He felt sorry for them, but somebody has to pay for social justice.

Strip 1 - Click on page above to goto the next page. -- First Seen: 2008-09-26
Escape From Terra is updated with new pages every Monday through Friday.

Not-Safe dot Kickstarter

The big news this week is that Scott is preparing to launch a Kickstarter for his other comic, the very much NSFW Not-Safe.Space.

This over-sized (8.5 x 11-inch), 48 page book contains Chapter 1 of this naughty sci-fi spin-off, featuring Eithne Lamdagan, who happens to be Alyss Roaz' 7th-great granddaughter, in case you didn't know.

The story picks up roughly 2 years after QUANTUM VIBE: Assimulation left off, as Eithne and her K'Tagon boyfriend Ralff, wander through the Galaxy of the Gamer Godz, playing as the CUSH Queen, working to re-balance a real-life RPG that her travelling companion Hugo Galvez left in a bit of a mess.

Only instead of Eithne's CUSH turning people into techno-zombies, as the Godz originally intended, Eithne wants to make them techno-Succubi/Incubi, spreading what she calls an "Erogene" factor rendering them too busy making love, to make war. And of course, Eithne gets wrapped up in her work.

The campaign will start on May 14, and the link for the pre-launch page is here.

What Comes Next

The war is over, but This Means War has a ways to go. Novo Paolo/Bubbleopolis is still in a nebula/stellar nursery, no one knows what happened to the planet Sharen (center of the Intergalactic Council), and the status of the now-surrendered Invaders is yet to be resolved. What will they do when they learn their homeworld is basically destroyed? Will Alyss and Li be re-united? How about Diana (the real one) and Otto?

These questions will be resolved in the next few weeks, before This Means War part 3 wraps in late May.

After that, I plan to go BACK in time about 400 years, to when Alyss and Li left their home in the Sol System to colonize a new world on the far side of the galaxy. As one might expect, hijinks ensue. New subtitle yet to be determined, start date sometime in around the start of July. Stay tuned!

The Transcript For This Page

Panel 1
Full-height panel, Guy Caillard – a small, wiry man with a pencil moustache -- is walking towards us down an office corridor. He is dressed in 22nd-Century style office clothing, and the corridor (along with all the interiors of this segment) have a simple/functional but also vaguely futuristic style. Clipped to his breast pocket is a 2”x3” ID badge. When you can see it up close, it has his mug-shot as the largest object, his printed name, a small bar-code and two magnetic strips.

Guy is holding a cup of coffee, and he has a desultory expression on his face.

Caption: Guy Caillard, from the French region of Terra, pronounced his first name ‘Ghee’.

Caption 2: That the mostly Anglophones here at United World Revenue Service insisted on pronouncing it to rhyme with ‘eye’ was one of many irritations he endured at his job.

Panel 2
Dream-picture of a more heroic image of Guy, dressed something like a Wild-West Sheriff with a big star on his vest, standing over the corpses of the “robber barons,” gazing across a bomb-blasted corporate boardroom in a domineering pose.

Caption: All his life he had nurtured an heroic vision of himself, one recognized for his talent and courage.

Caption 2: When he went to work for the UWRS, he thought he would force the robber barons to pay their fare share in helping Terra’s less fortunate.

Panel 3
Medium elevated angle shot of Guy’s cubicle, with the real Guy sitting at his desk. The cubicle is about 7x7 and is crammed full of paper files, folders, and envelopes both large and small – stacked up in piles around the place. There are drawers and cabinets but they are also stuffed There’s barely room for a walkpath to Guy’s chair. It looks absolutely dreary. Guy is taking a sip of his coffee while seated with ramrod straight posture facing the terminal display on his desk. The display looks something like a futuristic flatscreen monitor and keyboard, without cords. The desktop is also cluttered with stacks of papers and envelopes.

Caption: It hadn’t quite worked out that way. The Robber Barons had been taxed into oblivion, except for a clever few who made all the right friends and were therefore untouchable.

Caption 2: So Guy spent his days squeezing the dwindling middle class to fund UW’s many worthy projects. He felt sorry for them, but somebody has to pay for social justice.